Bailout: Necessary evil or corporate welfare?

AP Photo/Charles DharapakPresident Bush listens as then-Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr., speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House about his selection to replace outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow on May 30, 2006 in Washington. (

"Hundreds of billions" of taxpayer dollars would be involved in saving the nation's reeling financial institutions from themselves under a plan being worked on this weekend (Sept. 20-21) by Treasury officials and members of Congress.

Is this necessary to save the nation from deeper economic dysfunction, possibly a recession or worse? Or is this, as the old saying goes: "Socialism for the rich, private enterprise for the poor"?

What's your view?

Should financial houses and banks that gambled and lost be rescued from their bad deals by the government? Or should they be left to their own devices, even if it means allowing them to go bankrupt, as in the case of Lehman Brothers?

Should any bailout be paired with more stringent regulations on bank loans and exotic Wall Street financial devices that have exacerbated the free fall of major financial institutions? Or are more regulations a bad idea that will inhibit economic growth?

How do you rate the performance of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in handling the crisis? Is President Bush still running the country? Or is he just being kept around for the photo ops? How's Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke doing? Will his expertise on the Great Depression come in handy?

And, finally, can the government afford to take on hundreds of billions of dollars of additional debt? Who's going to end up paying for this ultimate in corporate welfare: today's taxpayers, future generations, Wall Street? Or will the country go broke in the process?

Related Stories

Featured Story

Get 'Today's Front Page' in your inbox

This newsletter is sent every morning at 6 a.m. and includes the morning's top stories, a full list of obituaries, links to comics and puzzles and the most recent news, sports and entertainment headlines.

optionalCheck here if you do not want to receive additional email offers and information.See our privacy policy

Thank you for signing up for 'Today's Front Page'

To view and subscribe to any of our other newsletters, please click here.